City’s first new strip club in 20 years about to be unveiled

It’s been quite a week in news about the politics of Seattle strip clubs.

First, there were the dancers at Sugars in Shoreline fighting back in what they said were police stings designed to trap or entice them into breaking the law when a bunch of willing officers used their publicly funded bankrolls to get all hot and bothered.

Then there were the topless kings, two Frank Colacurcios, son and father, finally working out a plea agreement in their campaign contribution scandal involving Seattle City Hall and efforts to influence zoning decisions at Rick’s on Lake City Way.

“There’s no word yet on whether neighbor-appreciation night will include black robes and gavels, but Seattle’s first new strip club in 20 years is going in less than a block from the federal courthouse.

“And from his chambers on the 14th floor, U.S. District Judge James Robart – who struck down the city’s ban on new cabarets two years ago – has a bird’s-eye view.

“Deja Vu Showgirls is planning to open the club, the city’s fifth, in the basement of Fantasy Unlimited, an erotic boutique and movie theater less than a block from the U.S. Courthouse. A small sign in the window – barely noticeable amid the posters advertising erotic films and mannequins in electric-pink netting – advertises “Seattle’s newest gentlemen’s club coming in 2008.”According to the story, the project architect expects to receive a building permit within two weeks. He described the design as standard strip-club fare, with a “cave-like atmosphere,” and said construction would take about six months.

No strip joints have opened in Seattle since the late 1980s, when the number jumped from two to seven, prompting the city to impose a 180-day ban on any new cabarets. For the next 17 years, the City Council repeatedly extended the moratorium, the AP story notes.

Here’s more from the AP report:

In 2005, Robart struck down the ban at the request of would-be strip-club proprietor Bob Davis as a violation of the First Amendment’s free-speech rights. The ruling stoked fears of a rash of new clubs, and the mayor and council responded by passing rules – including a lap-dance ban and increased lighting – designed to dissuade clubs from opening.

The city’s voters quickly threw out the new rules by a 2-to-1 margin, rendering Seattle safe for lap dances once again. But still, no cabarets opened while the City Council did the politically sensitive zoning work of deciding where they could be located.

Deja Vu already operates a strip club on First Avenue, near the Pike Place Market, and on Lake City Way Northeast. The new location is on the just-completed line of the South Lake Union trolley, and just around the corner from the Seattle Police Department’s West Precinct.